News Roundup 09 January 2021
Jan 09, 2021 • 4 min Read
Coronavirus cases in the Philippines exceed 485,000 with 1,952 new infections | PHILSTAR.COM – The health department on Saturday tallied 1,952 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the national caseload to 485,797. This marks the highest number of new coronavirus cases logged by the agency in over three weeks and is the highest daily tally of 2021 thus far. Of the total infections logged by the DOH, it has marked 26,784 or 5.5% as active. Recoveries rose to 449,615 after 291 more people were reported to have beat the virus. But another 34 fatalities were also registered by the department, raising the death toll to a grim 93,398.
Spike in COVID-19 cases feared as thousands flock Quiapo for Black Nazarene feast | PHILSTAR.COM – Experts fear that a spike in COVID-19 cases would happen as thousands of devotees flocked Quiapo in the city of Manila for the feast of the Black Nazarene. “We’re really going to need a miracle to stop a superspreader event in Quiapo right now,” said Doctor Edsel Salvaña, among the experts in the technical advisory group that advises the Department of Health (DOH). He pleaded to devotees not to go to Quiapo, where the basilica of the centuries-old image of the Black Nazarene is located. “Aren’t we supposed to watch out for each other? Putting others at risk is about as un-Christian as it gets,” Salvaña said. Doctor Tony Leachon, former adviser to the government’s COVID-19 task force, also echoed these concerns, saying that violating social distancing protocols will only lead to an increase in coronavirus cases. “Our faith is not proven by physical presence only,” Leachon said. “God will not look over for our attendance on this once a year event but for scars of sacrifice and love of humanity.” Amid fears that the Feast of the Black Nazarene may turn out to be a superspreader event, the Department of Health asked devotees who physically attended Saturday’s celebrations to isolate at home and observe themselves for symptoms of COVID-19.
Lacson: A folly to open Cha-cha floodgates now | INQUIRER.NET – It is unwise to be “opening the floodgate” for a broader Charter change (Cha-cha) if the goal—in the guise of reforming the party list system—is only to cripple the progressive Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives for their alleged communist ties, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Friday. Lacson, chair of the Senate national defense and security panel, warned his colleagues in Congress that amending the 1987 Constitution for such a specific objective could have consequences that not even the proponents had intended. “If it’s true that Malacañang’s wish is only aimed at the Makabayan bloc in Congress for allegedly acting as legal and political fronts of the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army), they should be a little bit more creative in accomplishing that objective without opening the floodgate to possibly tinker with the Constitution in its entirety,” he told the Inquirer. The opposition Makabayan bloc is composed of representatives from Bayan Muna, Gabriela, ACT Teachers and Kabataan. Administration and security officials have tagged them as either CPP members or rebel sympathizers. “What makes it (Charter change) less sensible or acceptable is when the purpose is aimed at some party list groups who earned their congressional slots based on an enabling law in compliance with the same Constitution that is sought to be amended,” Lacson said, referring to Republic Act No. 7941, or the Party-list System Act.
Amending the Constitution, timing is critical —Gatchalian | Manila Bulletin – Timing is an important factor in any move to amend the 1987 Constitution, preferably at the start of the one-time, six-year tenure of any Philippine president. Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, former chairman of the Senate economic affairs committee, stressed this following a move of the House of Representatives to amend, through a Constituent Assembly (Con Ass), the Constitution’s supposed “restrictive” economic provisions and to recast a provision allowing the inclusion of party-list organizations at the Lower House. Gatchalian said that to amend the economic provisions at the homestretch of the Duterte administration is suspect. President Duterte’s term started in 2016. It will end in June 2022. “I agree with making amendments, particular to the economic provision but what is important is timing. When you open the Constitution to amendments, you cannot control or stop others from seeking other amendments. And that is not right. The best time is at the start of a President’s tenure,” Gatchalian said in Filipino.
